Japanese soba noodles are delicious and nutrient rich. They’re made with buckwheat, which contains all nine essential amino acids, meaning buckwheat is a complete protein. A common flour ratio for soba noodles is 80:20 buckwheat flour to all purpose wheat flour. This small amount of gluten in from the wheat is enough to make the dough manageable, and in the case of our recipe, the all purpose flour comes in the form of sourdough starter, adding flavor complexity and digestibility. Our instructions do include baker’s percentages in case you’d rather not use sourdough starter, and the recipe is written for four small servings (or two large), allowing a beginner to finish the entire process relatively quickly and without needing an extra long rolling pin or special knife.
This short video shows how I made these noodles in a home kitchen on a small scale and with a chef’s knife.
Soba noodles can be enjoyed with classic Japanese pairings. For example, search “cold soba noodles with dipping sauce” or “soba noodle soup” for recipe ideas. Or try a cross-cultural fusion e.g. substitute soba noodles in place of kasha (roasted buckwheat) in a Polish dish, serving them with sauteed mushrooms and onions.
I’m including these videos below so you can take a deeper dive into the history and methods of soba noodle making. Watching these professionals make soba noodles is like seeing a world class musician perform, but don’t let the grace and precision in the videos below prevent you from trying these noodles as a beginner. Soba noodles are too tasty (and healthy) to pass up.
These sourdough soba noodles are a partly fermented take on traditional Japanese buckwheat noodles. We’ve added fermentation flavors, enhanced digestibility, and if you have a countertop grain mill, fresh buckwheat flour to these delicious, nutrient rich noodles.
Ingredients
- 180 grams freshmilled buckwheat groats or buckwheat flour (1 1/2 cups)
- 90 grams ripe all purpose flour-fed sourdough starter (1/3 cup, stirred down) *
- 45-60 grams water (3-4 Tbsp)
- tapioca starch or corn starch for rolling the dough, approx 1/4 cup
Baker’s Percentages (with the starter broken down into flour and water)
- 80% buckwheat flour
- 20% all purpose flour
- 40-47% water
Instructions
- Add the flour and sourdough starter to a large, wide bowl.
- Drizzle in some but not all of the water.
- Mix the dough with your fingers or a Danish dough whisk.
- Begin gathering and kneading the dough in the bowl. Add the rest of the water as needed to absorb the dry flour.
- After all of the flour is pulled into the dough ball, transfer the dough to a clean work surface and knead it for a few minutes. Add flour as needed to eliminate any stickiness. The dough should not coming off the ball onto your fingers.
- Dust the dough and your work surface with tapioca or corn starch. If possible, mold the dough into a bit of a square before rolling it out (see my video) or use the rolling technique in the pro videos to achieve a rectangular shape.
- Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, adding more starch if needed, and aiming for a rectangle with 1/16 to 1/8 thickness.
- The goal of the next step is to fold the dough so that you have a rectangle that is narrow enough for your knife blade to cut in one motion. See my video above where I cut the noodles with a chef’s knife. Most likely this will be an envelope fold but do what works for your knife. Dust the dough with starch and fold it in thirds, dusting each folded surface as you go.
- Carefully transfer the dough to a starch-dusted cutting board.
- With a sharp knife, cut the noodles. As a beginner, I aimed for a thickness somewhere between spaghetti and linguine.
- Leave the cut noodles on your cutting board, or if you’re making multiple batches, carefully transfer them to a baking sheet that is dusted with starch. You can try to shake off some of the starch but don’t toss or untangle the noodles like you might a wheat pasta because they’ll break.
- Boil water (not salted) and cook the noodles for 90 seconds up to about 3 minutes depending on how thick they are.
- Use a mesh scooper/skimmer to lift the noodles from the water or gently pour them into a strainer if you’re boiling all at once in a large pot. Don’t use tongs or you’ll break the noodles.
- Rinse the noodles with cool water to wash away the excess starch and place in an ice bath to stop the cooking.
- Enjoy the noodles cold with a dipping sauce or if eating the noodles in soup, reheat them a bit in the broth before serving. They can also be served with savory vegetables or meat, added to a saute at the last minute.
Notes
* Use ripe or young sourdough starter. Older starter / discard tends to have weak gluten due to its acidity and this will make the noodle dough a little more difficult to manage.
